Bring deep body wisdom to your communities. Develop your expertise as a certified embodiment educator & transformative movement guide
Deep Body Movement & Embodiment
Facilitator-Educator Training
A COMPREHENSIVE YEARLONG TRAINING & CERTIFICATION
October 2024-October 2025
fully experiential live online training
Do you wish to unlock more of your body's deeper wisdom and guidance in order to experience transformative shifts towards greater vitality, inner power, and a deeper belonging to the feminine principle and the web of life– then empower others to do the same? Have you already glimpsed the unparalleled ability of a body moving intuitively, sensually, and freely to heal the psyche, align with the rhythms of the earth, bring us into our genius, and expand our potential? Do you share our belief that reclaiming our bodies’ sensuous wisdom and their earth-honoring, soulful, and intuitive intelligence is a powerful form of social activism?
Welcome to a unique opportunity to become a catalyst for embodied change—for women, people at large, and for the world!
Our professional certification is for leaders, healers, therapists, coaches, educators, artists, and humans who want to transform both their personal lives and their work with powerful Deep Body intelligence techniques, trauma-informed somatic (body-based) approaches, and intuitive movement & dance methods, so we can together foster a more harmonious and sustainable global culture, rooted in feminine wisdom and balance.
Our graduates from around the world have implemented the potent embodiment tools & methods learned here into therapies, classrooms, delivery rooms, creative projects and studios, eating disorder centers, companies, wilderness work, and more.
The certification training is an incredible journey of personal transformation that offers an opportunity to connect with your entire being and uncover your inner genius. The community of practitioners and the instructors provide an incredible support system to help you along the way. Since completing the training, I have already had the opportunity to share my newfound skills with my community and have been amazed by the results!
Tamara De Zotti
Conscious Birth Doula, The Natural Power of Birth, Norway
This is an epic training, deep, and robust. It equipped me with the knowledge, insight, and experience to feel confident as an embodiment guide. It is a seamless blend of intellect, soul, and embodied practice that will support you in cultivating your inner knowing, so that you feel empowered to take the leap and guide others into meeting the deep wisdom and beauty of their own bodies.’
Sarah Ping Nie Jones
Co-founder & Lead Facilitator at the Kopanya Institute, South Africa
This training has been a highly valuable tool and resource to deepen my work with my clients in a very meaningful and powerful way. It provides the scaffolding needed– tools, resources, community and support– to venture into the wilderness of the body, and support the life-changing work of embodiment for others.
Colleen Young, LFMT
Clinical Director at Liberating Justice, Washington, United States
Training with us takes you on an journey into your deep body intelligence in order to prepare to:
🗝️ Develop your expertise as an embodiment facilitator and trauma-informed Deep Body Movement guide for diverse groups and environments
🗝️ Facilitate workshops, groups, and/or one-one-one sessions that tap into the profound intelligence of the deep body and its intuitive, soul-searching movement, enabling people to rediscover their depth, purpose, vitality, and belonging to the web of life
🗝️ Catalyze social change through the restoration of the primary languages of the deep body– sensuality & erotic connectivity, imagination & creativity, instinctual and evolutionary wisdom, and soulful expression, centering these languages as vital and primary for the wellbeing of humans, cultures, and habitats
🗝️ Support women to move their center of operation from the head into their belly, womb, and pelvic root, returning to their native way of being and the health of body and soul
🗝️ Help people wake up the wilder, ancestral, archetypal wisdom inherently available in their deeper bodies, so they can access internal guidance, resources, and nourishment
🗝️ Guide people to address body pain, symptoms, and old wounding through somatic awareness and organic Deep Body Movement to release outdated embodied patterns, free up life force, and connect to the body’s communication about the path forward
🗝️ Bring the transformative power of embodied intelligence, Deep Body Movement, nervous system education, and trauma-informed care into your work with people and organizations, radically increasing your impact
The Four Training Pillars
Skills You Will Develop
Personal Growth Skills
Facilitator and Educator Skills
Community & Social Change Skills
The moving body can tell the truth about our lives in ways that nothing else can...
"Listening" to and sensing our bodies is powerful, but it's not enough: Your body must be allowed to move freely and intuitively, to express with spontaneous shapes and gestures, to flow with emotion and sensation, to investigate your soul through movement. Only then, the body will speak in its innermost voice about what you ache for, about the stories you carry inside, about what your ancestors have left you to navigate, and about how you can be well again.'
Stefana Serafina, Founder and Lead Trainer
An incredible experience that exceeded all my expectations. I received incredible support from the trainers in finding a way to implement my newly learned skills in expanding the scope of my photography work. I was able to both explore my personal growth and develop skills to facilitate embodied practice and expression. What made this training even more special was the amazing connection with the rest of the women in the program! We formed a supportive community that lasted even after the training ended.
Albena Ilieva
Photographer, California
www.albenailieva.com
The training felt fated. It triggered a very important personal transformation and that brought an entirely different dimension to my purpose work. I have so much more confidence in what I am offering and where I am going! This work has taught me how to come home to myself, to my body, to my place on this earth and as part of nature and life. That is absolutely priceless and a long sought answer to prayer for me.
Rebekah Lynn Osorio,
Voice Coach, Graphic Designer California
Training as a facilitator with the Deep Body Institute has been a deep journey of self development, stepping into leadership and traveling back to my essence to rediscover what I truly love, and bring that into the world through the Deep Body Method.
Mette Borup Kristensen
Visual Artist, Teacher
Copenhagen
The Yearlong Journey
Module One
Personal Immersion & Experiential Foundations
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Immerse in the work by applying it in your own life: Dive into deeply personal and transformative Deep Body Movement journeys
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Rediscover your deep body intelligence and utilize its powerful guidance in all areas of your life
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Encounter deeply seated, outdated embodied patterns and follow the body’s lead toward needed change
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Develop understanding of how a disembodied culture has prevented humans and habitats from experiencing our wholeness, vitality, and our full potential
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Revitalize your sensuality, aliveness, and the experience of embodied connection with the living web of life
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Cultivate embodied understanding of the deeper body as primary to our wholeness, wellbeing, and full expression
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Learn to resource yourself, both as a human and as a practitioner through practices of embodied stability amidst shifting sands
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Developing your knowledge of the nervous system and nervous system regulation as a foundation for facilitating embodiment safely and effectively
Module Two
Developing Somatic & Deep Body Expertise
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Learn the foundations of somatics, body-centric science, and the indigenous roots of embodiment practice.
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Cultivate the primary somatic languages of the body–sensation, breath, touch, sound, movement, and earth-body connection– as primary pathways to activating and accessing body intelligence
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Learn how to work deeply with each layer of deep body intelligence: Cognitive, physical, emotional, sensual, expressive, intuitive/perceptive, and archetypal/collective
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Learn how to guide your clients into a deeper felt and embodied connection with nature– a vital source of health, wholeness, and guidance
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Learn tools for accessing and cultivating the erotic intelligence of the body and rekindling the somatic knowledge of our sensual anatomy
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Master techniques for working with the deep psyche- the meeting place of conscious and unconscious- using embodied imagination, metaphor, and symbols
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Reclaim the feminine principle as the nature of the body– and as primary force in embodiment work
Module Three
Nervous System Education & Foundations of Trauma Informed Care
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Essential nervous system education
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Foundations of trauma informed care and trauma sensitive approaches in embodiment
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Understanding the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses to traumatic experiences
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Handling your client’s challenging embodiment experiences as a guide
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Trust, safety, agency, and choice as foundational in embodiment facilitation
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Group agreements, individual responsibility, and healthy boundaries
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The art of holding space for transformative embodiment work
Module Four
Mastery in Embodiment Facilitation
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Group and individual work and dynamics in holding space
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Space, rhythm, music, and silence: Holding the space for transformative embodiment work
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How to attune somatically to those you are guiding without taking on their experience
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Voice, presence, and guiding rhythm of the facilitator
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How to working with the ‘Field’: Leaning into the greater body
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Preparedness and intuitive, in-the-moment facilitation: The golden balance
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Addressing conflict and resolving challenges
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Creating an inclusive and non-judgmental environment
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Elephants in the room: Working with race, body type, age, gender, and body ability
Module Five
The Power of Movement as a Transformative Tool
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Understanding movement as the mother tongue of body and psyche, and tapping its potential for self-discovery, growth, and wellbeing
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Origins of Authentic Movement, dance therapy, and somatic movement modalities
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Guiding powerful embodied movement journeys: Process, structure, pacing, and integration
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Working with body parts, body shapes, gestures, and expressions to connect more deeply to what is happening inside
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Movement as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and personal + collective growth
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The essential toolset for facilitating Deep Body Movement®
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Utilizing community power in embodiment: Witness, partner, ally, circle
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The power of integration
Module Six
Finding Your Personal Genius in Embodiment Facilitation & Leadership
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Cultivate your unique personal genius as a foundation for bringing your embodiment facilitation to your work and communities.
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Become rooted in your unique life experience, creative voice and qualities, and your lifelong expertise
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Create a working structure for bringing deep-body and movement-based embodiment into your life's work–your way!
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The business of embodiment facilitation: Bonus business training to assist you in taking your embodiment work into the world
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Self care and sustainability
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Community presence, outreach, and expansion
Module Seven
Fieldwork & Practicum: Social Healing and Change Through Deep Body Embodiment
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Craft, develop, and refine your vision for incorporating embodied facilitation and leadership into your work and life, as it best fits your personal skills and genius and your current goals.
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Receive support and supervision in developing your field work project and deliver a full-blown experience/class series/workshop for your audience of choice, weaving embodiment and movement-based approaches.
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Beyond patriarchy and neo-colonialism: Your passionate obligation to social and cultural change
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Ethics: Legal and moral obligations of the embodiment facilitator & Deep Body Practitioner
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Commitment to inclusivity & diversity in your services
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Decentralized leadership
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Certification and completion
How It Works: Structure & Format
Faculty & Guest Teachers
Stefana Serafina, M.A.
Founder of the DBI, Lead teacher
Stefana Serafina, M.A., is an embodiment educator, transformative movement facilitator, mentor and trainer, recognized for her unique body– and movement–based approach to personal and collective growth.
Based in the San Francisco Bay, Stefana has worked with hundreds of women and non-binary people in the U.S., Europe, and around the world since 2009, and has trained practitioners and facilitators in 12 different countries. She developed the Deep Body Model of the human psyche and the Deep Body Movement Method, which empower people in restoring embodied wholeness, interconnectedness, and personal–collective growth.
Weaving together Deep Body Movement journeys and expressive arts approaches, nature- and soul-centric body practices, women’s sensuality & mystery traditions, embodied archetypal psychology, and dance, Stefana’s facilitation and teachings have been called "life-changing and life-giving", "deeply penetrating and rekindling", a "masterful invitation to the timeless remembrance of who we are''.
Stefana’s credentials include a Master's Degree in Communications, with a focus on embodied communication and and award winning thesis on body image & embodied development in modern culture, as well as counseling training from the Interchange Counseling Institute, a certification in Drama Therapy, and a wide range of training and research in various disciplines, including Authentic Movement, Ancestral Trauma Healing, and women's studies.
See more about Stefana and her work here
Our Guest Teachers
These is not an exclusive list of our guest teachers- we will be updating the 2024 list with more guests soon.
Philip Shepherd
Author, trainer, leader in the global embodiment movement, creator of the Embodied Presence Process
Bernadette Pleasant
Dance facilitator, somatic healer, sensual speaker, founder of The Emotional Institute and Creator of Femme!
Zhenevere Dao
Teacher and innovator of mythosomatic practices, founder of the philosophy of Post-Daoism and the MogaDao practice tradition.
Michelle Hardeman-Guptill
Psychotherapist,
trauma specialist, transformational coach
Carina L'yall
Guide, storyteller, story gatherer, medicine keeper, host of Becoming Nature Podcast
Laura Larios
Nervous System expert. Collaborator at Stanford University Cardiovascular Health, weaving together Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Experiencing, Clinical Mindfulness, and Neuroscience.
Caitlin Naramore
Business Mentor and Strategists. Marketing and Branding expert helping women to clarify, launch, and scale their most aligned businesses visions.
Our Method, Your Way
What we mean when we say deep body
We coined the term deep body to speak to the wider, deeper, many-layered intelligence that converges in our physical bodies. Our empirical research has shown that the more we feel and sense and validate our physical bodies, the more we also unlock their deeper ‘skins– the emotional, sensual, expressive, intuitive, and ancestral-archetypal intelligence that is written into cells, bones, muscles, and embodied experience. In the Deep Body work, we support people to open all of these layers of intelligence in their bodies, and become rooted in a wisdom much wiser, wilder, more sovereign, and more encompassing than the intelligence of the isolated mind.
Movement is the game changer
in embodiment and healing/growth work
Movement isn’t about being a dancer or a mover, or about moving gracefully and well. It's a primal and essential language of the body. A growing number of studies confirms that movement helps us live longer and happier, and feel more connected to ourselves.
When the body moves, the psyche moves. Anger, grief, and sadness move. The nervous system releases and resets. Our shapes and gestures in motion touch and express parts of us that have been forgotten, buried, or abandoned. We unlock the preverbal, archetypal intelligence of our bodies, and it offers us powerful guidance for our lives!
For women, movement and sacred dance have even deeper impact– they open us to the powerful ancestral feminine legacy written in our bodies, and give us an opportunity to discover and claim the fullness of the feminine soul inside us.
When we support people to engage in their lives and deepest questions through movement, we are helping them tap a vast and transformative healing potential that otherwise remains dormant.
Our Deep Body Model of the Embodied Human Psyche is comprehensive method you can use in your unique way
Each guide develops their unique style of guiding and supporting others through the Deep Body work– and that style is rooted in their signature expertise, skills, interests, and talents. Beyond our unique facilitations styles however, being trained in our method means that you will be expertly prepared to offer evocative, insightful, trauma-informed embodiment facilitation, guide rich movement journeys, body–mind explorations, and community sharing, all of which will support your clients in revitalizing their deep body intelligence in order to heal, feel wholeness and belonging, honor all life, and create meaningful personal and social change.
Training+Certification Cost
Early rate by Sept 9, 2024:
$6500 USD
Save $300 when paying upfront, or:
3 x bi-monthly payments $2265, or
10 x monthly payments $680
Regular rate after Sept 9: $7000 USD
in 1-10 payments
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We offer a very limited number of partial scholarships available to people who demonstrate great professional potential, a deep commitment to the work, and a very significant economic hardship.
Application in the FAQ section
A Summary of What is Included in the Cost
13 months and more than 170 hours of the most extensive, high-impact embodiment facilitation training in the field, for practitioners who want to center deep body intelligence, trauma-informed somatic approaches, movement and conscious dance in their work
YOUR TRAINING HOURS INCLUDE:
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A deep & transformative personal journey as the foundation to cultivating professional skills
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13 once-a-mont live weekend training calls (both Saturday & Sunday, 3-hour calls on each day) in a time zone well suited for Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Africa
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Top-of-the-field education offered by our guest embodiment experts, offering diverse perspectives and angles (around 14 hours total)
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A rich 75-page manual: Mastery & Facilitation Know-How for the Embodiment Facilitator, written by Stefana Serafina, exclusively for our trainees
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13 monthly embodiment facilitation practice calls/labs, meeting on 2 hours each time
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10 monthly community pods meetings (optional), 75-min meetings
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10 hours of one-on-one peer practice sessions, in which you give and receive embodied and Deep Body Movement counseling
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A free week each month for integration and ‘digestion’
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A full-blown field (real life) project you develop to integrate and test your personal concepts and style, and deliver to your community– supported by our team
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A group mentor reviewing your facilitation practice and assignments, and support by Stefana in your field project
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All-in-one Training Resource Page, containing all recordings, sessions notes, PDFs and worksheets, guest presentations, and additional resources for the training
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A digital library of practices and workshops, led by Stefana & other qualified Deep Body guides, to use both for your personal journey, and as guidelines for your facilitation
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A Certificate as Deep Body Embodiment & Movement Facilitator & Educator, provided that you meet all criteria
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A Movement Temple (optional) to drop in, move, release, and integrate
Cost & Summary
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Do I have to be present for live calls? Will calls be recorded?We encourage you to be present for all or most of the live training, and require that you attend at least 65% of the monthly weekend primary calls and the Wednesday Practicum calls. Should you miss calls, you will be able to access the recordings made available to you for a lifetime access.
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What is the monthly time investment required?Depending on the module and phase of the training, you will need an average of 12-18 hrs per month.
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Do I have to have previous experience with movement or embodiment?No. While some of our trainees are already trained somatic therapists and seasoned practitioners, we do not require you to have experience. The path you have walked so far is a perfectly sufficient prerequisite to taking the training. We do request that you are familiar with our work on some level- take a one-off workshop, or dive into the free practices, and make sure this is a style of working you appreciate.
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Are there any prerequisites?No. However, we request that you have experienced our work in some way before you apply for the training, to assure you resonate with our methods: This could be via a short course, an intro call, or a practice you have done with us.
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Is this a training that focuses on one specific method that I have to strictly practice?No. While we have developed and branded our work and method, they are versatile and universal in nature, and the purpose of this training is that you discover your own unique way of weaving somatics, movement and embodiment into what you do, and drawing on our method to further develop and empower your own work. You are also welcome to use our method exclusively, as primary to your work. We do require that you credit the method and reference your lineage with us and the origin of the work, but beyond that, you have full creative freedom for how you use it as your own. If you need more clarity about this, contact us.
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Is this only for people who want to support and facilitate women’s spaces?Although the Deep Body work centers feminine approaches, it has been brought to diverse environments and to all genders by our trained practitioners. We strongly believe all humans need and benefit from it.
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Do you offer scholarships?We have 3 partial scholarships for each annual edition of the training, available to people who can demonstrate both a deep commitment to the training, and exceptional economic hardship. If you need to apply for a scholarship, pls submit an application here.
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I do not identify as a woman. Is this training right for me?Although our training is most specifically targeted toward women and non-binary fem people, we welcome all who want to train, without exclusion. We do not uphold heteronormative values, and support diversity in gender, race, age, body type and ability.